Right after I posted the previous item, I got another ten e-mails saying it was Johnny Haymer and one from someone who thought it might have been Hamilton Camp. I knew Hamilton Camp and it wasn't him…though it wouldn't have surprised me if Hamilton could have equaled or even bettered what Howie Morris did.
Jay Thurber hit some online newspaper archives and found that The Philadelphia Inquirer, reviewing the show on Dec. 7, said it was Johnny Haymer. Meanwhile, The Vancouver, B.C. Sun on 12/5 called the actor "unidentified" and lamented the absence of Howard Morris. I lament the absence of Howard Morris every day since we lost him.
Jay also notes, "In the New York Daily News, Hedda Hopper was reporting that Howard Morris was writing a play about Sid Caesar, but wouldn't admit it — which is probably a big reason why Caesar didn't do the bit with Morris in the first place." Sid and Howie had a very strange on-again/off-again relationship. Each thought the other was utterly brilliant as a comic actor. Each found it financially advantageous to work together now and then.
But there was "bad blood" there now and then as well, a lot of it having to do with the division of whatever money was earned by the rerunning or reuse of material from Your Show of Shows and other programs they did together. Others who worked on those shows like Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks chose to not make an issue of it but they were very wealthy and also didn't have as many ex-wives (and therefore, alimony payments) as Howie. Howie also felt that Imogene Coca and some others involved in those shows were owed money and I have no idea how true that may have been.
Howie was nursing that play about Caesar for many years and when he and I became close friends in the mid-eighties, he asked me to collaborate with him and help him complete it. I declined and he eventually found someone else to help him. They did a staged reading of it at a little theater on Ventura Boulevard and it did not present a flattering portrait of "Eddie Romaine," as the Caesar-like character was called.
But sitting there, I thought it wasn't a bad play; just one that needed a lot of work, as most do after a first reading. It was though mistimed, as Howie soon heard that Neil Simon was writing a play that would be called Laughter on the 23rd Floor — his version of working for and with Sid Caesar. I think Howie then figured, "Well, what's the point now?" because I never heard him mention his play again.
And — oh, hey — I just got an e-mail from Rus Wornom telling me that last night, MeTV ran the episode of the original Star Trek series, "All Our Yesterdays" which included a role played by Johnny Haymer! I told you the guy worked all the time.